Patriot Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Swim went well. I quickly settled into a nice rythym, but found nobody to draft off of... and was doing a piss-poor job of navigation (could swim a straight line). Made it around to the end thinking that it wasn't bad at all... felt great... arms not even close to tired. Got wetsuit halfway down running into T1 and did a double take at my watch. 26 minutes??? No way. The course was WAAAAAY short... I'm guessing not more than 1500 yards instead of 2112 yards. Bummer.

Wear GPS to measure the course??

As usual for me, slow. Can't get a wetsuit off my giant feet to save my life, despite a heavy layer of body glide. That's what you get with size 11W feet and a women's "large" wetsuit.

Now that I own a wetsuit, gonna chop off a couple more inches to make bigger leg openings... maybe it'll be easier.

By no means spectacular... but my best bike split ever and on the smallest amount of bike training. Go figure. Maybe b/c I was training on routes that had more/longer/steeper climbs?? Dunno. But I went hard from the start and held 19.2mph for the first half. Pulled back a bit not wanting to totally fry myself and my left glute was getting very unhappy for some reason. Encountered some obnoxious people. The usual pace line of fast dudes... I swear I see this sh*t at every race. And a couple times I had 2 chicks riding side by side taking up the whole friggin' lane making me cross the double yellow to pass. Did a fair amount of leap-frogging with some people... and even passed several people on fancy carbon tri bikes... always nice to do riding a cro-mo roadie. :)

More biking... duh! Oh yeah... and not forget to lube up... yeah... realized that at mile 47 and explained why I was so freakin' uncomfortable.

Holy moly. Getting off that bike and running in bike shoes, sore glute, over lumpy grass. Ow ow ow.. slow. Good otherwise, just wish I had a better rack spot. Quick shoe change, grabbed hat and gels and took off.

Gotta get some tri shoes and learn flying mount/dismount

Started out feeling pretty cruddy. I suspect I didn't eat enough on the bike and should've had some salt as well, but didn't pack any and hate Heed. Shuffled along cursing that I wasn't passing many people, but then I'd gone faster on the bike and was further up in the field than normal... and had expended more energy. First station, asked for water, got Heed. ICK!!! Right after, right quad started cramping, stopped the try and stretch, but when I pulled my ankle back to my butt, the back of my thigh started cramping. Gave up, said a few choice word, and shuffled on. Things didn't start feeling better until ~4 miles in. Started taking in more fluid as it was getting warm out. Began to pick it up the last few miles trying to get in a run <1:50, but knew I wouldn't be able to. Sadly, wasn't enjoying the run nearly as much as I usually do.

Not fry myself on the bike. More bricks (which requires more biking). Stay on top of nutrition... and stay far far far away from Hammer products. Blech.

Got my spiffy medal (a cassette cog), water bottle... and cool wet washcloth (awesome!!!). Wiped down and wet to snag my gear from transition and change clothes before grabbing food.


Lack of bike training and bricks. Perhaps nutrition as well.


Race was pretty well done, but for being the "Premier MA half iron distance tri" it should have an accurately measure swim course... or at least close enough for me not to notice. But they had great volunteer support... especially on the bike course, tons of volunteers... it would be impossible to get lost!